Copy 



; EX-GOVERNOR BROWN 



REPLIES 



TO 



1 L L' S NOTES 



ON THE 



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SITXJ^TIOISr/' 



AUaeiSTA: 

GEORGIA PRINTING COMPANY, 190 BROAD STREET. 

1867. 



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EX-GOV. BROWN REPLIES 



TO 



B. 11. HILL'S NOTES ON THE "SITUATION." 



Number I. 



[fkom the chronicle a sentinel.] 
You have lately published a scries of 
"Notes on the Situation," by B. 11. 
Hill, in which he has thought proper to 
make an attack upon me by name, 
which makes it proper that I notice 
them appropriately. As the attack was 
published in your paper, I rely upon 
your sense of justice when I ask per- 
mission to reply through the same 
medium. I also most respectfully 
recjuest all other editors who have 
published Mr. Hill's Notes to publish 

my reply. I think I can safely promise, 
in advance, to occupy less space than 
he has done. If any of my articles 
should be longer than his, they shall be 
less numerous. In No. 14 of Mr. Hill's 
Notes I find the following language : 

''Sumner and Stevens, and Brown 
and Rolden, are not accidents — nor 
fire they oriyinal characters. They 
have figured in all mad revolutions, 
from the fall of Greece and the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem to the present day. 
Such men have ever been treacherous 
to principle — faitiiless to trust, and 
deceitful in professions, but always 
consistent in the common end of de- 
struction to government. And as these 
Military Bills have no character but 
opposition to all the provisions and 
principles of the Constitution, and can 
have no end but its utter and final de- 
struction — such men and all their ilk, in 
both sections, will unite in their sup- 
port." 



Whether all the persons named sup- 
port the Military Bills or not, Mr. Hill's 
intention is plain, to denounce all who 
support or advocate a settlement of 
our unfortunate politital ditfieulties, 
under the Military Bills, as freacherovs, 
faithless, and deceitful. Coming from 
a source eutitled to respect, this would 
be a serious charge. As it is intended, 
however, as a political document, and 
was written for political effect, to 
deceive and mislead, before attaching 
importance to it, I consider it not 
inappropriate to inquire into the politi- 
cal respectability of the author. 

If I am correctly informed, Mr. Hill 
started his political life professing to be 
a Democrat. In 1855 he was the Know 
Nothing candidate for Congress in his 
District and was defeated In 1856 he 
was on the Electoral ticket, supported 
by the Know Nothing party of Georgia, 
and was defeated. In 1857 he was the 
Know Nothing candidate for Governor, 
and was defeated. As I was the 
Democratic candidate, probably the 
latter defeat had not been forgotten by 
him when he prepared his "Notes on 
the Situation." In 1859 he took posi- 
tion in advance for war, without wait- 
ing for an overt act of oppression by 
the Federal Government, in case the 
Republican party should elect their 
candidate for President the next year. 
In the fall of 1859 he was elected State 
Senator from Troup county, for two 
years, the most distinguished honor 
evf^ conferred upon him by poindar 
vote. After Mr. Lincoln was elected 
President, he backed down from his 
position for war, and was a candidate 



in the winter of 1860 for the Convention 
on the Union or Cooperation ticket. 
He was elected and took his seat in the 
Secession Convention. He at first 
opposed secession. Before the passage 
of the Ordinance of Secession, after it 
was known that a majority of the Con- 
vention favored it, it began to be dis- 
cussed in private circles who should be 
elected to the Provisional Congress in 
case the State seceded. The Ordinance 
was put upon its final passage and Mr. 
Hill voted for it and signed it. A few 
days afterward he was elected to 
Congress by the Convention. Whether 
by voting fjr the Ordinance he betrayed 
the people of Troup county, v/hose 
voice was against secession for the 
causes then existing, I do not pretend 
to inquire. At any rate he was not 
elected as a Secessionist, for the then 
existing causes ; he voted for the 
Ordinance, and was elected to Congress 
by a niajority of Secessionists. What 
important measures or practical states- 
manship he inaugurated, or carried 
through Congress by his ability or 
iniluence during his whole term of 
service, I have never been able to 
learn. 

While the Secession Convention was 
in session at Savannah, Mr. Hill, then a 
member of both the Convention and the 
Provisional Congress, made a speech to 
the peo[)le, in which he said, '"the North 
would not fight. There looiild he no 
war. But if the North should be so 
foolish as to go into the contest, there 
never was a people on the face of the 
earth so well prepared for it as we were. 
Jl should be ail aggrtasice loar. The 
war should bo carried into Alrica ; and 
when the cities of the North were laid 
in ashes, arid the country devastated 
and bid waste, then we should find that 
the people ot the North were the ones 
to a.-)U for terms and sue for peace." 
]\v. pictured the rising glory ol ths new 
Conlederacy, and went on to say, that 
while this becam« more compact and 
secure, disintegratiou would come as 



sure as fiite upon the old Union, and 
they would seek entrance into this. 
And he very graciously added that "if 
they came humbly enough as 'hewers of 
wood and drawers of water,' they might 
come." 

When the next Legishiture met, there 
were in it a majority ot the old Know 
Nothing party, and Mr. Hill was elected 
to the Confederate Senate over General 
Toombs. 

While in the Senate he voted, under 
oath, against the first Conscript Bill. 
As is well known, I opposed the measure, 
when made public, as unconstitutional. 
Not long after this was known, Mr. Hill 
made a speech in Milledgeville, in 
which he intended to be very severe on 
me for my opposition to a measure 
against which he had cast his vote 
under oath 5 and said the country would 
have been ruined if it had not passed. 
After that time he became the zealous 
advocate of the conscription policy and 
denounced all who opposed it. 

During the war, when a call was made 
upon the people, not subject to conscrip- 
tion, to volunteer and organize for home 
defense, when it was doubtful whether 
they would be called out for active ser- 
vice, Mr. Hill made a speech in La 
Grange and encouraged all to volunteer; 
and as a means of giving force to his 
appeals, and of showing his own patri- 
otic devotion to the cause, he enrolled, 
or authorized his name to be enrolled, 
as a private in one of the companies 
being formed, and pledged himself to 
go if they were called out. Soon after- 
ward, upon the advance of the Federal 
army, the company was ordered to the 
field for active service, and Mr. Hill not 
being one of the *'dupes who showed a 
will to lose blood," backed out and re- 
fused to go. The reason reported at the 
time, as given by him lor his refusal, 
was, that he was a Confederate Senator 
drawing a salary, and that while in his 
condition it would be unconstitutional 
for him to draw the "(tixy oi o. private sol- 
dier. So it appears that the present is 



5 



not the only occasion when Mr. Hill's 
motto has been to stand by the Consti- 
tution as his only safety. As he would 
certainly have been entitled xo i\\e pay 
of a private shoulder if he had shoul- 
dered his gun and gone with the com- 
pany, and as it was wrong for a Senator 
to violate the Constitution, he was not 
arrested and compelled to serve. 

All true Confederates are expected 
by him to admit, that Mr. Hill's 
denunciation of those who wilfully 
encouraged desertion or evasion of 
service, by any who could enter the 
bullet department without a violation of 
the Constitution, is most just and 
proper. But no one is expected to 
blame a Senator for refusing to shoulder 
a musket as a private soldier, in 
violation of the Constitution, after 
getting ''our people," whose "intelli- 
gence and virtue," he says he has 
'' often overrated," into the service, any 
more than the world was expected to 
blame the lame captain for starting in 
the retreat in advance of his men. It 
may be, in view of the above incident 
in his life, that Mr. Hill exclaims in 
No. 14 of his notes, " I never felt I 
made war on the Union." 

Mr. Hill now says, '* I was willing 
every hour of the struggle to stop the 
fight and negotiate." When and to 
whom did he proclaim that willingness 
during the struggle? All remember 
in Georgia thftt he was stumping 
the State when General Lee sur- 
rendered, assuring our people that 
there was no possible danger of sub- 
ju-ration, and exhorting them to accept 
nothing but "independence or exter- 
mination." 

While ladmit that our position as a 
conquered people is not consistent with 
our lormer position ; and that the sword 
having settled the construction of the 
Constitution against us, the position of 
individuals who adopted the State 
lliijlit^ theory prior to the Avar, and the 



one they now occupy under the amnesty 
oath, by which they are sworn to 
support the ''Union of the States," are 
not con.sistent ; I have felt justified, 
as the assailed party, in I'ecurring to 
ihis outline — before and duiing tiie 
war — of the political character of this 
reckless calumniator, who denounces 
the Congress of the United States again 
and again, till the tautology is fatigue- 
ing, as a "fragmentary conclave," and 
its members, without exception, as 
perjured tiaitors and " libellers ;" 
who charges the President of the 
United States with having committed 
"the most , fatal and dangerous error 
of this generation, not excepting seces^ 
sion nor coercion, or even fanaticism 
itself," because he has agreed that it is 
his duty to execute laws passed over 
his veto by two thirds of Congress, 
which have not been declared void 
by the Supreme Court ; who boldly 
proclaims that it is the duty of the 
President to suppress Congress ; who 
arraigns the Supreme Court of the 
United States for having in a late 
decision, as ho says, ^^ simply a/Jirmed 
what is called the ultra State rights 
doctrine of South Carolina ;" who 
asserts that Generals Beauregard, 
Longstreet, and Hampton, are far 
more to be despised than a burglar, 
because they " counsel submission to 
the military acts;" and who denounces 
General Lee, General Johnston, Gene- 
ral Gordon, and almost all other of 
the Generals of the Confederate 
armies, each, as an ^'■enemy to the Con 
stitution," and '' an enemy of every 
citizen whose rights arc protected by 
the Constitution,'' because they ''pas- 
sively submit '^ to the same acts of 
Congress. 

Doubtless these great men, if they 
should read Mr. Hill's bombastic ful- 
niiuations and aspersions, would be 
" exceedingly filled with contempt," 



6 



Number II. 



Jn Mr. Hill's Atlanta speech, he says, 
as he had before said in substance in 
his Notes, that all who vote for a 
Convention and encourae^e others to do 
so, are "w/)r«Z/// and legally perjured 
traitors." This is a very sweepino^ and 
Unjust denunciation of a large majority 
of the people of Georgia who will vote. 
Why are they jierjured traitors ? Be- 
cause the Convention is called under 
the Military Bills, which, he says, vio- 
lates the Constitution, which he and 
all others who took the Amnesty Oath, 
and all who take the voters' oath have 
sworn to support. In other words, no 
man who has sworn to support the 
Constitution can vote for a Convention, 
called by an act which Mr. Hill 
assumes to be unconstitutional, without 
being guilty of perjury. 

And why is he perjured? Certainly 
not because he votes for a Convention 
to alter the State Constitution. This is 
the right of the citizens of the States at 
any time, and has been repeatedly ex- 
ercised bv the people of the different 
States. Not because he votes for a 
Convention to chatige the basis of suf 
frage. That has been done repeatedly 
by State Conventions and Legislatures. 
Then why is it perjury to vote for the 
Convention ? The substance of Mr. 
Hill's reply to this is : The act of 
Congress that provides for holding the 
Convention is unconstitutional, and any 
one who has sworn to support the Con- 
stitution commits perjury if he acts 
under an unconstitutional act of Con- 
gress. All viho register do certainly act 
under this same unconstitutional law of 
Congress. The first action (which the 
Military Bill proposes) that the citizen 
takes is to register. 

The second is to vote for or against a 
Convention. The one is as much 
under the niilitury law as the other. 
And strainje as is the inconsistency. 
Mr. Hill advises him to do the first act 
required, and denounces him as a per- 



jured traitor if he does the second, and 
votes for the Convention. Before fur- 
ther noticing this very extraordinary 
position, let us apply Mr. Hill's rule to 
Mr. Hill himself. When he was re- 
leased from prison and took the Am- 
nesty Oath, he swore to support the 
Constitution of the United States, and 
in the sanie breath he swore to support 
the Proclamations of the President, 
abolishinir slavery in the States, in- 
cluding Georgia. At that time, Geor- 
gia had not held a Convention and 
agreed to abolish slavery. The Consti- 
tution protected it. The President s 
Proclamation had declared it abolished, 
and at the same time Mr. Hill swore to 
support both the Constitution and the 
Proclamation. 

He came home and favored the 
incorporation of a provision into the 
constitution of the State forever abolish- 
ing slavery, which was protected by the 
Constitution of the United States ; and 
when the Legislature met, he favored 
the adoption, by them, of an amend- 
ment of the Constitution of the United 
States declaring it forever abolished. 
The Presiilent required the first, and 
Congress had proposed the second to 
the States, which the President also 
required the Southern States to adojtt. 
Mr. Hill swore both tc support the 
Constitution and to cany into effect 
the Proclamation of the President, 
which abolished or declared it abolished, 
over or ^'outside'' of the Constitution. 
We were then acting under the reqiiire- 
ments of the President. Now, compare 
that with the present requirement. 
The President then required us to do 
two things : 

First, to amend our State Constitu- 
tions so as to destroy some three 
hundred millions of dollars of our 
property, which the Constitution of the 
United States protected ; and, second, 
to ratify an amendment of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States putting it 



forever out oftlie power of the State to 
restore our property to us. The present 
requirements of Congress also exact 
two things of us: One to alter the 
Cfjnstitution of the State so as to ^ive 
suffraf^e to the African rare, and the 
other to ratify an amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States dis- 
franchising certain officers (Mr. Hill 
among the number) who engaged in 
the rebellion, as our amnesty oath 
compelled us to call it, not forever, as 
in the case of the abolition of slavery, 
but till they may be relieved by a 
vote of two thirds of Congress; and to 
do certain other acts, which were also 
required by the President— as the 
repudiation of the State war debt, etc. 
Now, if it is a violation of the Con- 
stitution for Congress to make a voter, 
upon which Mr. Hill puts so much 
stress, and to require us, as a condition 
precedent to re-admission, to incorpo- 
rate it into our State Constitution that 
he shall be a voter, was it not as much 
a violation of the Constitution for the 
President, by proclamation, to abolish 
slavery and require us to incorporate 
that into our State Constitution ? And, 
if it is unconstitutional for Congress to 
require us to ratify an amendment of 
theConstitution of the United States, 
taking from certain officers who engaged 
in the war the right to hold office, was. 
it not equally a violation of the Con- 
stitution for the President to require 
us to ratify a similar amendment, 
taking from us hundreds of millions of 
dollars worth of property, without a 
dollar of compensation ? Is Mr. Hill's 
right to hold office any more protected 
by the Constitution than the citizen's 
right to hold property? If it is a 
violation of the Constitution to require 
the State to deprive him of the one, is 
it notequally a violation of the same 
Constitution to require us to deprive 
the citizen of the other ? If he had 
sworn to support the Constitution of 
the United States he favored the one, 
and he now denounces as a perjured 



traitor any man who supports the 
other. 

He says he "shall never get done 
shuddering, and horrors will never 
cease to rise up in his mind, when he 
sees men taking an (»ath to support the 
Constitution and then iei/iatating to 
put in force mcasntes which aie on/side 
of it." He also says, " I shall dis- 
charge the obligation of the amnesty 
oath. _ It requires me to support the 
Constitution and the emancijtation of 
the negro, ^ and I do." The military 
bills require an oath to support the 
Constitution and the enfranchinement 
of the negro. Where is the difference 
in principle? Mr. Hill swallowed the 
one without gagging, and saw the 
measure put in force ''outside'' of the 
Constitution without shuddering. But 
when his inordinate ambition for office 
is about to be interfered with, "horrors 
constantly rise before him." And I 
regret to see that he is not the only 
one of the former leaders and office 
holders in Georgia who, after having 
aided in, and even presided over, the 
doing of acts quite as humiliating and 
as violative of principle and of consti- 
tutional guarantees, seems willing now 
to have the country plunged into 
irretrievable ruin, rather than submit 
to the disfranchisement which the 
conqueror requires on account of his 
acts of disloyalty. Rather than have 
their unholy ambition for office 
thwarted, such men seem determined 
to drag down with them those who 
have been their followers and heed 
their advice, and to subject them also 
to disfranchisement, and their families 
to want by confiscation. 

Again, in his Notes, and in his 
Atlanta speech, Mr. Hill says, he 
"earnestly begged and urged" Georgia 
and the South not to secede. He also 
says you are alreadi/ in the Union, 
"and always were." And in his Notes 
he says, "I never felt I made war on 
the Union." 

It seems but one inference can be 



8 



justly drawn from these expressions, 
which is, that Mr. Hill advised and 
ur;2[ed Oeortria not to secede, and that 
ho never believed Georgia was out of 
the Union, and consequently that he 
never made war on it. If Mr. Hill's 
hmijuaoe means anythinn^, this is his 
position. Let us con^pare these pro- 
i'essions with his acts. 

In 18;")!), in his Dudley lettor,]of which 
I have no copy, and speak from memory, 
the sul)stance of which I am satisfied I 
t^ive correctly (if I err its publication 
will correct m^), Mr. Hill, in answer to 
the question, what the people of Georgia 
should do in the event the Republican 
party elected its candidate for the 
Presidency the next year, most em- 
phatically advised "«'«?', war, war. in 
every sense in which the term is defined 
or definable.''^ And in the event that 
Douglas was elected, or any one holding 
his opinions, the same course is recom- 
mended in most earnest terms- I think 
no word in the letter indicated the 
desire or intention of the writer to await 
an overt act of oppression by the Federal 
Government, or the cooperation of all 
the Southern States, as a contingency 
on which hostilities should depend. To 
this position of timr, loar, war, he com- 
mitted his party, his friends, and his 
honor, and defended and justified it in 
his speeches that Fall> whenever he 
alluded to it. 

After the election of Mr. Lincoln he 
had not the moral courage to stand by 
his position, but backed down from it, 
and as he now says, in 1860 "earncstli/ 
begged'^ and urged Georgia not to 
secede. In January, 18G1, he again 
changed and voted for and signed the 
ordinance of secession. He now saj^s 
he told the people that secession would 
produce war. Of course he predicted 
all the evils that have befallen us, none 
of which would have happened if his 
advice had been taken. 

Prior to 18G0 he had taken the oath 
to support the Constitution of the United 
States. As a member of the Confede- 



rate Congress he aided in the forma- 
tion of the Confederate States, and 
afterward swore to support it. He also 
voted for a virtual declaration of war 
against the United States. He voted 
to raise and support armies, and equip 
them to be hurled against the forces of 
the United States, to set up by force an 
independent government within the 
territory of the United States. He now 
denounces those who told the 
people that secession would be a peace- 
able remedy, and says in the teeth of 
his Savannah speech, he always pre- 
dicted it would produce the state of 
things that followed. Then, according 
to his own statement, when he voted for 
secession, he knowingly and wilfidly 
voted for bloody war, and in the Con- 
federate Congress voted to sustain 
bloody war, against the Government of 
the United States, whose Constitution 
he had sworn to support. When Mr. 
Hill did all this, if he believed, as he 
now says, that we ^^always were'' in the 
Union, he sinned against conscience, 
light, and knowledge, and is ^^legally 
and morally a perjured traitor.'' 

If the State had no riL-'ht to secede, 
and did not secede, the conclusion is 
inevitable that all who believed secession 
would produce war, and ought not to 
be attempted, and so believing voted 
for or voluntarily aided secession, are 
traitors against the government which 
they believed had rightful jurisdiction 
over them ; and all who so believing 
took an oath to support the Constitution 
of the United States, and afterward 
aided the rebellion, as it is called, are 
perjured traitors. 

There is but one mode of escape 
from the legal ^n^ mom7 guilt oHreason 
&i\d perjtay left to Mr. Hill, or any other 
man, who took the oath to support the 
Constitution of the United States and 
afterward aided in the war against the 
United States. That escape is found 
in the position occupied by the Seces- 
sionists and those who honestly believed 
that the State of Georgia had, under 



the compact, the right to secede and 
did secede. What, then, follows? 
After we seceded we were a State 
fureij^ii to the United 8tat(,\s. 

We had war with the United States 
as a foreiu;n power. After a gallant 
struggle we were conquered by the 
United States, and became a conquered 
people out of the Union. We then 
ceased to have any Consiitutional rights 
till re-admitted, except such as the 
conqueror chose to recognize. We had 
only the rights which, by the hiws of 
nations and the laws of war, beknig 
to tlie conquered. What we term 
Coiistiiutlonat rigJits in this country 
are not among the rights of the 
conquered by the law of nations. The 
amnesty oath administered to our 
people at the dictation of the conqueror, 
in which each persf)n is sworn to sup- 
port the Constitution of the United 
States, neither restores the seceded 
States to the Union, nor imposes the 
duty on each individual in the con- 
quered Territory to resist " the laws" 
passed by the Congress of the con- 
queror, which no judicial tribu- 
nal has declared unconstitutional. — 
It simply means that we, as indi- 
viduals, will obey all laws passed by 
Congress according to the forms of 
legislation prescribed by the Constitu- 
tion, till they are repealed or declared 
void by the proper Constitutional tribu- 
nal. In or out ol ihe Union, the oath 
of the private citizen to support the 
Constitution means no more than this : 
When a law is passed by a majority of 
Congress, with the approval of the 
President, or by two thirds o( Congress 
over the veto of the President, every 
citizen and subject is bound to obey it 
till it is repealed or the proper Court 
has pronounced it unconstitutional and 
void. The Military Bills were so 
passed, and they have never been 
declared void by the proper Constitu- 
tional tribunal. Till this is done, or 
they are repealed, every citizen of the 
United States, and every conquered 



subject of a foreign State, held by the 
United States, is bonnd to submit to 
them. He supports the Constitution by 
submission to the laws passed according 
to the forms of the Conslitntion, till 
they are re|)ealed or set aside by the 
proper Constitutional tribunal. 

Every man of common sense must 
see that any other construction of the 
oath would lead to endless confusion, 
bloodshed, and anarchy. Our people 
often differ about the constitutionality 
of acts passed by Congress. Courts of 
high authority difler. If Mr. Hill's 
position is right, each citizen is sworn 
to act upon his own construction, and 
resist every law which he deems uncon- 
stitutional, and defend all rights which 
he believes he has under the Constitu- 
tion ; and in his own language, "Talk 
for them, and if need be, before God 
and the country, Jight and die for them.'' 
Adopt this construction, that each citi- 
zen is bound to resist all laws which he 
deems unconstitutional, and we must 
have constant fighting and constant 
dying. In other words, anarchy and 
confusion must supersede all law and 
all order, whenever we differ about 
the constitutionality of acts of Con- 
gress. 

In his Atlanta speech, Mr. Hill 
exclaims: "O, how sorry a creature is 
the man who cannot stand up for the 
truth when the country is in danger. 
There never was such an opportunity 
as now exists for a man to show of what 
stuff he is made." How unfortunate 
for Mr. HilFs position that this did not 
occur to him in 1861, when he voted 
for secession, after having sworn to 
support the Constitution of the United 
States, and after having predicted hor- 
rible bloody war in case of secession, 
and after having urged and begged 
Georgia not to secede. What an op- 
portunity he then had to show the stuff 
of which he was made. Why did he 
not then "■stand hy the Constitution, 
our only hope, and fight for it, and, 
if need be, die for it, in his eflbrt to 



10 



avoid perjury, and put down rampant, 
bloody treason, which, if his present 
position is right, the Convention 
seemed determined to commit? How 
unfortunate it was for the country, and 
for the reputation of Mr. Hill, if he be 
now right, when he wrote his Dudley 
letter, and when he made his Savannah 
speech during the session of the Con- 
vention, and threatened the invasion 
of the North with fire and sword if 
the people of the North attempted to 
prevent our peaceable secession, and 
when he voted for and signed the 
Ordinance of Secession after having 
sworn to support the Constitution ; that 
the guardian angel of liberty did not 
sound in his ears louder than seven 
thunders, the elegant! chaste! language 
of Mr. Hill, marked in the quotations 
l)elow from No. 10 of his Notes. 

(), Mr. Hill, patriotic, political prophet, 
foreseeing great events after they 
occur, friend of liberty ! remember your 
oath ! ! 

"I ask you again and again, and I 
beseech all men" *'to ask," it is the 
earnest anxious piercing "appeal" of 
the dying hope of liberty ! Mr. Hill 
are you willing to violate the Const itU' 



Hon ? Are you willing first to swear to 
support it, with the intent, at the same 
time of swearing to violate it ? Then I 
proclaim, your hell-mortj^aged con- 
science will never cease to proclaim : 
yoQ are perjured, and perjury is not /lalf 
your crime; you commit perjury in 
order to become a traitor. 

0, Mr. Hill, think I think ! discard 
ambition ! and turn a deaf ear to the 
allurements of office 1 stand by the 
Constitution ! vote against secession! 
and thereby avert the bloody war you 
have predicted, liemembcr your oath 
to support the Constitution ! ! " If 
you do not the hell hounds which Death 
by rape begot of Sin, when Heaven's 
Almighty hurled down to Hell those 
who by deceit and force sought to 
destroy His supremacy, these very 
pretences which hate begets of hypoc- 
risy in this attempt to destroy the 
Constitution will become ' yelping 
monsters in the political hell into 
which the genius of constitutional lib- 
erty will cast you, and will * kennel' in 
the womb that bud them, and ' howl 
and gnaw,' and vex with conscious 
terrors forever." Shades of Milton ! I ! 



Number III. 



Mr. Hill in No. 7, in discussing the 
" law ot peace" between the Northern 
and Southern States, lays down the 
claims of both at the commencement 
of the war. He says : the Southern 
States insisted, 1st, '* That the Federal 
Constitution was a compact to which the 
States were parties as separate and 
independent States, and, therefore, were 
parties with the right by virtue ot their 
separate sovereignty of withdrawal 
from the compact, when in the judg- 
ment of the State withdrawing her 
interest or safety required withdrawal." 

2d. "That the administration of the 
common government by a sectional 
party — sectional because organized on a 



principle of avowed hostility to a right 
of property held by the citizens of the 
Southern States, and recognized by the 
Constitution — would endanger the inter- 
est and safety of such States, and 
therefore justified the exercise of the 
right claimed to withdraw." This is 
laid down as the whole claim made by 
the Southern States. He then says in 
a note : " The reader will observe that 
I do not claim the doctrines and pur- 
poses of the Confederate States as 
constituting any of the terms of peace. 
These were all defeated in the fght and 
abandoned by the surrender." 

We then. Mr. Hill being the judge, 
''abandoned by the surrender" as one 



11 



of the "terms of peace *' the right of 
withdrawal on account of the common 
Government beinc^ administered by a 
sectional parti/, "organized on pi-inci- 
ples of avoived hoslility to a rhflit of 
property held by citizens of the Sonth- 
ern States and recoynized by the Con- 
stitution-'''' 

After having admitted tiiat these are 
the "terms of peace,'' all that Mr. Hill 
says about the Conslitutioti, and its 
trnarantees, and our equality in the 
Union, and about our rights, for which 
we are iojiglit and die, is simple empty 
school boy declamation. 

If a sectional party — organized on 
principles of avowed hostility to a right 
of property held by us, and recognized 
by the Constitution — -claimed the right 
to administer the common Government, 
and we yielded that right by the sur- 
render, as part of the "terms of peace," 
and absolutely and unconditionally 
gave up and abandoned that very right 
ofjyyoperty, amounting to thousands of 
millions of dollars in value, and con- 
sented to meet in convention at the dic- 
tation of the conqueror, and incorporate 
into our State Constitution a clause aban- 
doning and destroying the very property, 
in "avowed hostility" to which, the sec- 
tional party was organized ; which 
property was recognized and protected 
by the Constitution ; and if at the like 
dictation of the conqueror we consented 
to, and ratified an amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States, for 
ever denying to the States, or the Con- 
gress, the power to restore this property 
to us, what is the value of the remain- 
ing rights of person or property left us 
by the "terms of peace," if we attempt 
to hold them in defiance of the will of 
the conqueror? It we were unable to 
, sustain our cause in the field, and were 
I compelled to abandon and give up, 
i without compensation, thousands of 
millions of dollars worth of property 
^^recognized by the Constitution," for 
the sake of peace, with what possible 
hope of success can we now, impover- 



ished and disarmed, reenter the field, 
to fight for Mr. Hill's right to hold 
office ! 

If there were no dishonor in the acts 
by which the Southern States incorpo- 
rated into their Constitutions clauses 
abolit^hing slavery, and thereby 
destroying thousands of millions of 
dollars worth of property, and we 
consented to its incorporation into the 
Constitution of the United States, at 
the dictation of the conqueror, what 
dishonor is there in incorporating into 
the same Constitutions a like provision 
enfranchising the freedmen, and dis- 
enfranchising officers who engaged in 
the war against the United States ? If 
the first did not violate the Constitution, 
and was not, " by legislation," the 
adoption of measures " outside of the 
Constitution," how does the last violate 
it? If he who voted for the Conven- 
tion, called at the dictation of the 
conqueror, to do the first, did not 
violate his oath to support the Consti- 
tution, how does he who votes for the 
Convention in the second case, at the 
like dictation, become a perjured 
traitor f 

Mr. Hill's statement in reference to 
the abolition of slavery presents a 
■ strange medley of confused jargon ; as 
will be seen by the following extracts. 
He says : "Mr, Lincoln's proclamation 
abolishing slavery was declared to be a 
war measure only." "There was an 
agreement on our part to emancipate." 
"Therefore, the abolition of slaver}^ 
may, in fact, though not in legal strict- 
ness, be counted as one of the things 
decided by the war, and as being part 
of the law of peace." "But the States 
had not ratified it (the Constitutional 
Amendment). It was, therefore, only 
a proposition nndetermined at the time 
of the surrender." "Neither he (Mr. 
Lincoln) nor General Grant, nor any 
other power, alluded to this (emancipa- 
tion) as part of the terms during the 
negotiations for, nor at the time of, the 
acceptance of the surrender J* 



12 



"I have shown, from the official re- 
cords of each and all, that the only 
conditions demanded of the Southern 
peo|)le, in laying down their arms, 
were the preserviition of the Union 
under the Constitution, with the single 
change of the abolition of slavery, 
which single change was very douht- 
fuUy and imperfeciJtj demanded, but 
was very promplJy and clieerfidhj 
yielded/' 

Why, certainhj, it was very douhiful 
whether the conqueror demanded the 
abolition of slavery as part of the 
terms of peace ! But the slaveholders 
of Georgia, to remove all doubt on that 
subject, \Qvy prompt! ij, yes, and most 
clieerfidhj, yielded it ; and gave up 
three hundred millions of dollars as an 
evidence of the cordiality with which 
they accepted the terms, and adopted 
the Constitutional Amendment, which 
was simply a "proposition undeter- 
mined at the time of the surrender. '^ 

The present propositions made by 
Congress are also undetermined since 
tlie surrender, and it Mr. Hill and all 
others in his condition will accept Lbein 
and surrender their right to hold office, 
as promptly and cheerfully as he says 
the slave holders of (leorgia surrendered 
their property, our ditlicnlties will soon 
be settled, and we shall have peace and 
returning prosperity. We shall see 
capitiil come in and develop the country. 
We shall have peace and plenty ior the 
farmer, business for the merchants, em- 
ployment fur the mechanic, and bre.id 
lor the poor. We shall then begin to 
receive part of the benefits of the com- 
mon <2:overnnient as well as its burdens. 
We shall have re})resentation with a 
voice in legislation, and share in the 
appropriations made out of the fund to 
whieh we, in common with the people 
of the North, are contributors. 

liut who can tell, from the above 
quotations from "Mr. Hill's Notes," 
whether the abolition of slavery was 
cue of the ''terms ot peace ?" I quote a 



little further. He says, while discussing 
the terms of peace : 

"I repeat, the only demaiul made by 
the United States in the beginning was 
that the people of the Confederate 
States should lay dov/n their arms, and 
return to their homes and obey the 
laws." Again, ''The question is, did 
the United States during the war a\id 
btfore the surrender make any other 
demands, or avow additional purposes 
and make them known to the Confede- 
rates ?" 

''I have been unable to find any 
other, and believe no other man is able 
to find any other legitimate or official 
demand or declared nurposes." 

After all this, Mr. Hill says : "Of all 
the delusions of the revolution, the 
fireatest was that of supposing that 
either party to the late conflict was 
fighting to preserve the Union under 
the Constitution." And again, "TJje 
result is the preservation of a territorial 
Union, but the utter destruction of the 
constitulional Union. Consent was the 
beauty of the old Union — force is the 
power ot the new." 

From all these contradictory state- 
ments, who can gather from Mr. Hill's 
notes what are the issues settled by the 
war, and what the law of peace ? In 
one breath the war was waged by the 
United States to preserve the Union 
under the Constitution, and in the next 
the greatest delusion of the revolution 
was that of supposing that either party 
was fighting to preserve the Union 
under the Constitution. In one number 
the Constitution is destroyed and a 
union of force substituted for the 
Constitutional Union; and in another 
we are told to stand by the Constitution 
as our only hope; and that we are 
still in the Union and ''always were" 
in it. 

It seems, however, from all Mr. Hill 
says ou the subject, that he does not 
insist that the abolition of slavery was 
part of the terms of the surrender, nor 



13 



was it part of the law or terms of peace. 
Yet Mr. Hill most cheerfully yielded it, 
and in violation of the Constitution, if 
his present position be correct, favored 
a Convention to make the sacrifice of 
this vast amount of property which was 
protected by the Constitution, all to be 
done by legislation " outside of the 
Constitution." But there was no per- 
jury in that, for while the legislation 
destroyed the people's property, it did 
not interfere with the rif^ht of ambitious 
men to hold office- 
Mr. Hill pretends to quote from a 
writer on the law of nations to show 
that no terms of peace can be enforced 
by the conqueror that are not made 
known to the conquered before they 
lay down their arms. He is careful 
not to give the section, page or edition 
of the work from which he quotes on 
this or other points. But what if the 
conqueror should impose other terms ? 
What is the penalty for so doing ? Mr. 
Hill says it makes him infamous, and 
is a just cause of war. How does this 
help us ? Mr. Hill tells us again and 
again that the government of our con- 
querors is noic infamous ; that they 
who control it are perjured traitors, 
wicked traitors, libellous, etc. Then 
the penalty of becoming infamous, 
according to Mr. Hill, has no terrors 
for them, and will not relieve us. But 



it is just c<i«56 of irar if they impose 
new terms. This may be, but how 
does this relieve us? What do we 
gain by another declaration of war ? 
We are disarmed, with no means of 
supporting the war. 

The Government has its vast armies, 
and navies, and boundless armaments, 
and resources at command. Why, then, 
advise us of our ri^ijht to declare war 
again ? Is Mr. Hill not yet satisfied 
with the shedding of blood ? It is simply 
worse than madness, as any man of 
sense well knows, to attempt further 
redress of our grievances by war. If 
our means are exhausted, and we have 
no further ability to maintain war, what 
is left to us but submission ? This 
disposes, without further notice, of all 
Mr. Hiirs subtle argument to prove 
that we are not a conquered people, sub- 
ject to the will of the conquerors. If 
we have laid down our arms and sur- 
rendered at discretion, and have no 
further ability to resist, why are we not 
subject to the will of the conqueror ? 
Neither subtle ingenuity, nor human 
reason, can change this plain, undeni- 
able fact. However much we may 
deplore it, candor compels us to admit 
that it is a stern reality. We arc a 
conquered people, unable to make fur- 
ther successful resistance, and are sub- 
ject to the will of our conquerors. 



Number IV. 



The writer of the Notes of Mr. 
Hill soeiiis to have in view these ob- 
jects : 

1. To abuse and denounce all who 
ditter from him in opinion, as dis- 
honest traitors, and those whom he 
most dislikes, because they may have 
been in the way of the gratification of 
his ambition, as the most dishonest 
and the greatest tiaitors. 

2. To oppose universal suffrage, as 
well of white as of black men. 



3. To give vent to his indignation 
at his own disfranchisement. 

He evidently has a very poor opinion 
not only of the black race, but also of 
that part of the white race who have 
* been too iguorant or stupid to ap- 
preciate his merits, and have not, 
therefore, been his followers. He 
says : "I frankly admit my opinions 
heretofore have not been accepted by 
a majority of the people." "My 
political life has been a struggle 
agamst prevailing opinions and poll- 



14 



cios." The same will again be true. 
His opinions will not be accepted, 
because they are imjnacLicalle and 
productive of still greater misfortunes 
and miseries to our afflicted people. 
And he is again making an imprudent 
and mischievous assault upon opin- 
ions and theories that must prevail. 

In his Number 5 he uses the follow- 
ing language : 

I admit I have often overrated the in- 
telligence, and virtue and endurance of our 
people. Everything they have done fr(>m 
the suicidal repeal of the Missouri com- 
promise, to the criminal and factious de- 
mor.alization which compelled our surren- 
der, has been contrary to my wishes, and 
against my protest. 

How unfortunate for Mr. Hill that 
his lot has been cast among such a 
wicked and perverse ireneration, pos- 
sessing so little intelligence, and so 
little virtue. Dining the whole period 
from the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise to the surrender, they have 
never done right in a single instance ! 
'^EceryOiing they have done'^ from the 
one event to the other has been ''con- 
trary to his ivishes and against his 
protest.^' How unfortunate for the 
people, as well as for Mr. Hill, when 
they have a political prophet, and an 
oracle of wisdom among them, that 
they should never lake his advice, und 
never do riirht in a single instance! Is 
it not enough to make Mr. Hill lose his 
temper, and denounce them as pc';;//«/e'i 
traitors, when he finds they are deter- 
mined to disregard his advice and go 
wrono- a":ain ? Wiiat better could he 
say of a people who, having had the 
benefit of his teachings for years, dis- 
regard his wisdom and never go right? 
Truly is a severe trial of his patience. 

Again, it is very provoking to a pure 
patriot like Mr. Hill to see by what 
agencies the people have been misled 
and ruined. These are, as he says : 

1st. " Demagogueism or thirst for office." 

2d. " Fanaticism or the bigotry of ex- 
treme opinions." 



Now all the world must know the 
preat contempt Mr. Hill has for the 
demagoyne or any act ot demagogy eisni 
and his entire freedom from anything 
like thirst for office. His constant 
political consistency, the elevation and 
beauty of his style in debate, the 
chasteness and elegance of his lan^ruagc, 
his aversion to the style of those wlio 
garble Milton and other poets, and 
present disjointed figures of hideous 
monsters and horrid nonsense, which 
are ludicrous and inappropriate ; and 
above ail, his dislike of sophistry, 
and his effort never to deceive or mis- 
lead the people, must certainly acquit 
him of all demagogueism and of all 
sympathy with demagogves ; while his 
past modest, retiring disposition, and 
the assiduity with which he has avoided 
public trusts or positions, must convince 
all that he has no ^^ thirst for ofice'.'^'' 
It cannot be necessary to say anything 
to acquit him of the charge of lanat- 
ism or bigotry of extreme opinions. 
A fanatic is delined to be a person 
affected In* excessive enthusiasu), par- 
tieularly on religious subjects. I 
believe no one ever accused Mr. Hill of 
this. 

After having stated the agencies by 
which the people are misled, he says : 
"Ignorance, credulil}'. and want of 
virliie among the peoi)l<', have been 
the food for both agencies." Again he 
says : '-Therefore, the people of Ame- 
rica have been made to do, with energy 
and great sacrifice, those very things 
which of all others they most Jiale.'"' 
Of course, the demagoones and fa- 
natics, who are so much abhorred by 
Mr. Hill, mislead them, or they never 
would have done it. 

After having reviewed all this de- 
pravity and corruption of the white 
race, and the bad agencies by which 
they have been misled, Mr. Hill ex- 
claims, Avith grent warmth, ''Univer- 
sal, indiscriminate, ignorant, vicious 
white suffrage has buried a million of 



15 



victims, slain by each other's hands, 
destroyed t!ie peace and prosperity of 
tlie country, and saddled an innocent 
and unborn posterity with burdens too 
grievous to be borne. Will it be wise 
to extend the sacred but desexraied 
trust of suffrage to more ignorance, 
more vice, and at the same time with- 
draw those trusts from intelligence 
and worth ?" 

lieinernber it, ye uneducated while 
men of Georgia, when you go to vote, 
Mr. Hill, the self-extolled })atriot and 
political prophet, not only opposes the 
extension of ihe right of suffrage to 
the freedmen, but he is in favor of 
taking "this sacred but desecrated 
trust of suffrage'^ from you and limit- 
ing it to men oiiiUcUigcncc and worLli 
like hijiisolf. His intiignation knows 
no bounds, when it is proposed by the 
Government to take from him tlie 
right to vote and hold othce, on ac- 
count of his course in trying to de- 
stroy the Government. But while he 
is venting his spleen on account of the 



act of the Government in disfran- 
chising inteUigent gentlemen of worth, 
who wish office, he denounces ''uni- 
versal, indiscriminate, ignorant, vi- 
cious, white svffrage.^^ And this is 
the political teacher who is writing 
and speaking against reconstruction 
under the Military Acts, and denoun- 
cing all who vote for the Convention 
under ihema^ lyerjured traitors. 

Whatever may have been our pre- 
conceived opinions or prejudices upon 
this svihject, under the slavery system, 
we are obliged to yield theic. The 
tendency of the age in all free govern- 
ments is toward universal sutFrage, and 
the sooner we sacrifice our prejudices 
jind, if need be, our consistency, on this 
subject and adopt it, the sooner the 
agitation will cease. Till then I aui 
satisfied it never will. Work as it may, 
Vt^e shall be obliged to make the 
experiment. Let us all hope for the 
bcHt, and 3Meld to the inevitable logic of 
events. 



Number Y. 



The following language is found in 
No. 8 of the "Notes" of Mr- Hill : "No 
surrendering people ever did more 
promptly, more absolutely, more sub- 
missively, or with one tenth of the 
sacrifice of property, and hope, and 
pride, and feeling, comply with all the 
terms demanded on their part, than did 
the ^Southern States and people. They 
laid down their anus; they gave up the 
great principles of government which 
liieir fathers taught them never to yield ; 
and to maintain which they fought so 
long and endured so much; though 
already impoverished, they gave up four 
billions more of property — the dest^ended 
patrimony of centuries," etc. 

Now, it Mr. Hill's statement is true 
that the people of the South, in the 
surrender, consented to so much sacri- 
fice of hope, and pride, and feeling, and 



after they were impoverished, gave up 
four billions more of property ; and in 
addition to all this, laid down their 
arms and gave up the great principles 
of government which their fathers 
taught them never to yield, what did 
they have left that they could hold 
independently of the will of the con- 
queror ? I had always understood the 
Constitution to be the embodiment of 
the "great principles of government" 
transmitted to us by our fathers. After 
we gave up these great principles of 
government, which our "fathers taught 
us never to yield," what constitutional 
rights did we have left? What equali- 
ty in the Union did we retain when we 
surrendered the great principles of 
government? What right to regulate 
suffrage contrary to the will of the 
conqueror, does a State retain when 



16 



she has surrendered these great princi- 
ples ? 

Why has not the conqueror, to whom 
these great principles have been sur- 
rendered, as much right to regulate 
suffrage and disfranchise persons who 
have incurred his displeasure, as he has 
to dictate the destruction of "four billions 
more of their property" after he has 
"already impoverished" them ? Thus 
impoverished and perfectly powerless, 
Mr. Hill advises us still to resist, fight 
for our rights, and stand by the Consti- 
tution. What part of the Constitution 
is left for us to stand by, after we have 
surrendered the great principles of gov- 
ernment embodied in the Constitution ? 
What rights have we left to fight for 
that were not protected by those great 
principles, and which were not lost by 
their surrender? How can we claim 
equality with the conqueror after we 
have surrendered both our property and 
the great principles of government at 
his dictation ? 

Mr. Hill denies the power of the 
Federal Government to destroy the 
government of a State, or even to regu- 
late the suffrage in a State, and urges 
to stand by our present State Govern- 
ment; and at the same time tells us 
that we are, and alivays were, in the 
Union. This involves a strange ab- 
surdity. H' the Federal Government 
has no right to destroy the government 
of a State, or to regulate suffrage in a 
State in the Union, and if we always 
were in the Union, it necessarily follows 
that the present State Government is 
illegal, because it was formed at the 
dictation of the President, upon the 
ruins of the old government of the 
State, which he had set aside by the 
arrest and imprisonment of its Execu- 
tive, by the refusal to allow its Legisla- 
ture to meet, and by its disbandment by 
military force. If, then, Mr. Hill be 
right, the government of the State, as it 
existed prior to the surrender, is its 
only legal government ; and the Con- 
stitution, as it then existed, is its only 



rightful Constitution ; and both the 
present State Constitution and the pres- 
ent State Government are founded in 
usurpation, and are necessarily illegal 
and void- 

The admission that the President had 
a right to establish the present State 
Government, is an admission that the 
conqueror had a right, after our surren- 
der, to set aside our then existing gov- 
ernment, and dictate to us another 
government in its place. 

If the Constitution did not protect 
our right to retain our State govern- 
ment as it existed prior to the surren- 
der, what other right did it protect ? If 
the conqueror had the right to give us a 
new Constitution and a new Stkte 
government, abolishing our old one, 
why did he not have the right to regu- 
late suffrage in the new ? And if he 
had the right to arrest and imprison, 
and depose the officers of the then 
State government, why has he not the 
ri^ht to disfranchise them ? Is it any 
more a violation of the Constitution to 
declare that the Governor of a State, or 
a Judge of her Supreme Court, shall 
not hold office in future, than it is to 
arrest, imprison and, depose him when 
found in office? Mr. Hill admits the 
, right to do the latter when he defends 
the present State government, which 
was founded in the exercise by the 
conqueror (the President acting as 
such) of his right to destroy the old. 
And when he has made this admission 
he has no escape from the position that I 
a conqueror, possessing the right to set * 
aside the State government which he 
finds in existence, and set up a new 
government in its stead, has a right to 
regulate suffrage in the new govern- 
ment set up by him. 

This being the right of the conqueror, 
as admitted by Mr. Hill himself, the 
only remaining question is, what depart- 
ment of the conqueror's government 
has the right to exercise this power? 
Admit that the government of the 
conqueror has this power over us, and , 



17 



you admit that we have no c:)iistitutional 
rights except such as the conqueror 
chooses to allow. Then it matters very 
littU^ which ue{>artment of the i^overn- 
mont exercises the power over us. The 
President undertooii to exercise it, and 
destroyed our old government, and set 
aside our old Constitution, and dictated 
the terms upon whicli we were to torm 
new ones. 

After this, Cono^ress, whicli is tlie war 
making power, denied the power of th(^ 
President to make peace with us, 
regulate the terms of the peace, and 
form governments for us, without the 
consent of Con^/ress, which must make 
all necessary ap[)ropriations, and pass 
all necessary laws for the restoration of 
the States, and without even consulting 
the Senate, which is part of the treaty- 
making power. 

All know the unfortunate contro- 
versy (very unfortunate for us) wiiich 
has grown out of the question between 
the President and Couiiress. And all 



Icnow the result. The people of the 
North in the last elections endorsed 
Congress. There is now a majority of 
over two thirds in each House, and the 
power ol Conprress is beyond the con- 
trol of the President. It follows, as we 
arc subject to the will of the conqueror, 
and Congress wields the p»wer of the 
conqueror, that we are sul)ject to the 
will of Congress. And it also follows, 
if the conqueror had a right to abolish 
our old State government and give us 
a new one, that the conqueror has the 
right to change the new one till its 
provisions have been approved by all 
the departments of the concjueror's 
Government, or by the supreuui power 
in that Government. And as Congress 
has shown itself supreme in that Gov- 
ernment, we, as the conquered, are 
oldiged to submit to any changes made 
by Congress, till the State govei-n- 
ment has been approved and rutltied 
by them. 



Number VI. 



I pass by much the larger part of 
Mr. Jlill's ''Notes on the Situation," 
which consists of vituperation, defama- 
tion, denunciation, and egotism, without 
further notice. 1 also forbear to com- 
ment upon the appropriateness and 
beauty of his expressions, such as "the 
fiery Uames of sulphurious hell," ''which 
seems determined with an adulterous 
mania to multiply its hell-visaged 
brood," "even this hitter cup of hellish 
ingredients might be drunk but for the 
nausea which makes us vomit," "that 
devilish spirit of treason," "the lowest 
of the damned spirits which now inhabit 
your labyrinths," "devilish prompter," 
"hellish brood of honors," and other 
like elegances of diction — not orii^inal, 
bye the bye — and proceed to notice the 
1-etnedif proposed in his Notes, by which 
we are promised relief. 

Now, if the remedy is ^'co7isiliu 
tionaV an^ practical, Mr. Hill's labors 



may prove to bo of some benefit ; but 
if Mr. Hill's olijoct lias simply been to 
tear the scab from the healing Avound, 
to appeal to tlie bitterest prejudices 
and worst passions of our people, to 
keep alive sectional animosity, hate 
and malice, and to alienate, as much 
as possible, those who are compelled to 
live together under the same govern"- 
ment in the future — then lie has ai^coni- 
plished his object without offering any 
sensible or practical remedy — he has 
done infinite harm ; and the people of 
his own section, who are the weaker 
and the conquered people, must be the 
greatest sufferers. In that case his 
labor has been the labor of an enemy 
who comes in the garb of a friend, de- 
ceiving them to their injury, and be- 
traying them with delusive hope. He 
cannot be your friend who advises 3M)u 
to do that which must result in your 
injury, and in entailing upon you still 



18 



greater miseries, without the possibility 
of practical benefit. 

Piissino; by all the fustian, and pas- 
sion, and self laudatioa, and assumed 
wisdom and statesmanship of the 
writer of the '* Notes on the Situation," 
let us look at the proposed remedy, 
strii)ped ol all its bombast and ver- 
bosity, and see if it contains a sin<,'Ie 
supf'jestion that is practical or even 
possible. If not it is simply the recur- 
rence of a similar convulsion recorded 
hundreds of years a^^o, when the moun- 
tain labored and a ridiculous mouse 
was brouj^ht forth. What, then, is the 
r'iliel which our political pro^diet pro- 
poses, as a deliverence for our people, 
airainst the Military Bills and the power 
of the conqueror, in the present emer- 
gency ? 

A country clerf;^yinan is said to liave 
announced the <li vision of his sermon 
under three heads. I propose, said he, 
under the first head to show what the 
Apostle did not mtan ; under the second 
head to show what he did mean, and 
under the third head to <;'et up a ruiise- 
'nieiit gencralhj' Now it seems that 
Mr. HilTs notes were all written under 
the third head, and his remedy han^^s 
upon the following advice under that 
ItcwL lie says, *'I, therefore, beg every 
citizen, black and white, even the hum- 
blest of the ten millions who inhabit 
these ten t'-tates, to remember — never 
iorget — that it is his right — his glorious, 
unpunishable, unimpeachable right, to 
resist eccrij inferftrence hy any ofKcer, 
high or ii)w, with his property or his 
person, or his liberty under tbese Mili- 
tary Hills." And in the Atlanta speech 
he advises them, beiore (rod and the 
ccmntry, \oJii/ht for and, if need be, die 
for their rights. 

Is there anything practical in this? 
Alter four years of galhmt resistance, 
when we have surrendered and given 
up our arms, when we are ''impover- 
ished," and have, as Mr. Hill says, 
given up "four billions more of proper- 
ty" '"after w.*^ were impoverished" — 



when the Government, with vast re- 
sources, can bring a million of armed 
men in the field against us, is it 
sensible or practical to attempt to find 
a remedy in the renewal of the ^fight ? 
Will Mr. Hill lay aside his senatorial 
robes and dignity this time, and shoul- 
der a musket and go to the front and 
engage in the fight recommended by 
him ? We have not even his pledge 
that he will. Then I dismiss that 
part of the reniedy as itnpracticable 
nonsense, intended to fall under the 
third head. 

But he proposes two other modes of 
resistance. Ijet us see under which 
head they fall. He again says : " Every 
officer, liigh or low, who seizes the 
property of a citizen, under these Mili- 
tary Bills, is a trespasser, subject to 
indictment and suits for damages as 
indiciduals. 'J hat every such ofHcer 
who arrests a citizen, under these bills, 
is guilty of false imprisonment, and 
subject likewise as an individual ; and 
is amenable to the \\v\ioi habeas corpus 
before any court, State or Federal, 
having jurisdiction to issue the writ." 
He then advises all citizens, who are 
arrested or their property interfered 
with, to avail themselves of these 
remedies by suit, habeas corpi/s or 
indictment. 

Mr. Hill, whose '' client is the written 
Constitution," by which, under all cir- 
cumstances, he stan<ls so r(!Solui,ely and 
firmly, promises to aid tliem without 
fee or reward whenever they see hint, 
at a court ! Is this practicable ? 

The act of Congress expressly pro- 
hibits any Judge of the United Stales 
Courts to interfere, or to entertain 
jurisdiction in any case arising under 
the execution of the Military Bills. 
And the Supreme Court of the United 
States has, in the Georgia and Missis- 
sippi cases, refused to entertain juris- 
diction, and thwart the execution of 
these laws, because the question is 
political and belongs to the other de- 
partments of the government. Then 



19 



the United States Courts would ueither 
entertain the suit nor the indictment, or 
grant the liabeas corpus. Nothing 
practical yet. The act of Congress 
declares the present governments of the 
ten States illegal, and authorizes the 
Commanding General to set aside the 
Judges or other officers at any moment 
of their pleasure. 

Suppose Gen. Pope orders the arrest 
of John Smith, in Atlanta, and John 
adopts Mr. HilFs advice, and sues the 
General for damages, and indicts him 
for false imprisonment. Tlic Hon. 
John Collier, Judge of the Circuit, 
now holds his office at the will of Gen. 
Pope, and the grand jur}'- sit only at 
his pleasure. The act of Congress ex- 
pressly denies to Judge Collier and the 
grand jury any jurisdiction in such 
case. General Pope is ])laced here to 
execute this act of Congress. Conse- 
quently it is made his duty to see that 
Judge Collier, who is subject to re- 
moval at his will, entertains jurisdic- 
tion of no such case. Now, suppose 
the General should order the suit and 
the indictment dismissed ; or suppose 
the Judge should grant a writ of liabeas 
corpus for the release of John from 
imprisonment, and the General should 
refuse to obey it. 

The GeJieral, with an act of Congress 
in his fivor, has the army of the United 
States at his bidding to execute his 
orders. The Judge has the Sheriff with 
whom to resist this army, who also holds 
his office at the pleasure of the General. 
Who must prevail, the Judge or the 
General ? Unless Mr. Hill, whose 
client is the written Constitution, should 
be there to represent John, it would 
seem that the General must be the 
victor. 

And it should not be overlooked 
by John, when he institutes his 
proceedings, that Mr. Hill's promise 
to represent him is subject to the 
condition that he sees Mr. Hill in 
Court at the time. Now it is at 
least possible, that here would be an ' 



insuperable obstacle in the way of 
John's success. Mr. Hill would, of 
course, have to exnmine the written 
Constitution very carefully before he 
appeared in Conrt on ihat occasion ; and 
might conclude it to be as nnconslitu,- 
tional for him to be there as it was for 
him to shoulder his gun and go to the 
front with the Troup county company, 
after he had volunteered and pledged 
himself to go. What practical efficacy, 
then, is to be found in this part of the 
remedy? 

.The only remaining point in the 
remedy is summed up in Mr. Hill's own 
language in the following quotation : 

I eartiostly hope the pooplo of each of 
the ten States will go boldly forward, ami 
preserve and contiuue their existing State 
governments, and hold all elections in the 
manner and at the time prescribed by 
existing State Constitutions, will choose 
officers qualified according to existing State 
Constitiitions and laws. If any citizen or 
ofhcer shall be interfered with in exercising 
his rights under these laws, or in discharg- 
ing the duties of any office to which he 
may be chosen, let him make the issue 
fearlcHsly, 

The law of Congress, as already re- 
marked, declares the existing State 
governments illegal, and gives the 
military coinnian<h:r jiower to set them 
aside at pleasure. 

It also confers sullVa<fC on the freed- 
men, aiul allows no election to be held 
till they, with the white men not dis- 
franchised, ;>re registered. The law also 
makes it the duty of the Commander of 
each Military District to see that its 
provisions are executed, and gives him 
all the military force necessary to that 
purpose. Now, suppose on the first 
Wednesday in Octolter next, the [teoftle 
of Atlanta, or those wiihin the I'each 
of any other military force within the 
State, deluded by Mr. Hill's advice, 
should open the polls atid proceed to 
hold an election for Goverm)r, Mem- 
bers of the Legislature, etc., and should 
allow none but w/i-te men, who are 
qualified under existing State laws, to 
vote. How long would the polls be 



20 



open before all engaged in the election 
would be under arrest and on tlieir way 
to prison ? They would, however, have 
this sinsrle consolation, in their misfor- 
tune, Mr. Hill advised them "to make 
the issue fearlessly-''' 

Again, suppose the elections were 
held in different parts of the State, 
without the knowledge of the military, 
and the Legislature elected should 
assemble and attempt to inaugurate 
the Governor elect. What does any 
man, not blinded with passion, nor de- 
mented with prejudice, suppose would 
be the result? 

They would be treated as President 
Johnson treated the existing govern- 
ment of the State at the time of the 
surrender. The Legislature would be 
forbidden to sit, and the Governor 
would be arrested and imprisoned. 
And Mr. Hill, should he attempt either 
to vote or hold office, in accordance 
with his advice to the people, would 
share the same fate. All who know 



him arc doubtless satisfied that he 
would not dare attem|>t to practice 
upon the advice which he gives others 
on this subject. Like the other points 
in the proposed remedy, this, too, is 
utterly impracticable, delusive, decep- 
tive, and hopeless. 

If Mr. Hill is sincere in this advice 
let him '•'make the issue fearlessly.''^ 
Let him have an election held under 
"existincr Slate Constitution and laws," 
and let him go and vote at it, or accept 
office under it. This will test the 
question, and as he advises it, let him 
come forward and take the responsibility, 
and lead his followers. Don't be afraid. 
Try it. You say there is no ConsLitu- 
iioiial difficulty in the way. Come up 
to it like a man, "make the issue fear- 
lessly," yes, fearlessly and independently. 
That is the way to decide the contro 
versy. If you succeed we will soon be 
rid of military government and negro 
suffrage. If you fail your followers will 
see your remedy is a humbug. 



NuIViBER VII . 



To recapitulate in a few Avords the 
remedy discussed in my last : Mr. Hill 
advises the people — 

1. If need be, before God and the 
country, to renew thojighl and die for 
their lost rights. 

2. To sue or indict General Pope, 
and all acting under the authority of 
Congress, in case they, or any of them, 
arrest any citizen or seize his property. 

8. To maintain the existing State 
Government independently of the act 
of Congress, and in defiance of the 
power of Gen. Pope, who is sustained 
l)y the act of Congress and the army of 
the United States. 

People of Georgia, this is the rem- 
edy, the whole remedy, and every part 
of the remedy, that can be found in, or 
extracted from, the fourteen numbers 
of "Notes on the Situation by B. H. 
Hill/' and in his Atlanta, speech. It is 



the only grain of supposed wheat to be 
found in the entire bushel of chaff, 
and when examined it is found to be a 
defective grain of cheat. 

As the champion of words in Georgia 
can suggest no practical relief against 
"those Military Bills," and as your 
rejection of the terras proposed by them 
will again bring down the power of the 
conqueror upon you, and entail upon 
yo7i, the same distranchisement and 
disability under which Mr. Hill chafes, 
with confiscation of your property to 
pay the war debt added, what is best 
ibr you to do? Will you renew the 
/if/hi with a certainty of being whipped, 
and defy the Government, which has 
the control over you, and therel)y pro- 
voke it to make your burdens still more 
grievous? If you do this in the hope 
of maintainincr the ri^^ht of Mr. Hill and 
others who are disfranchised, to hold 



21 



office, you will find it a vain hope. You 
may cause yourselves to be disfran- 
chised when Congress again meets, but 
you can relieve none who are now- 
disfranchised till it is the pleasure of 
Congress to grant the relief. Those 
who accept the terms prescribed by 
Congress, and support them in good 
faith, if they have not held high politi- 
cal position in connection with the 
rebellion, will, I have no doubt, be 
relieved very soon after reconstruc- 
tion is completed. Those who do not, 
cannot expect relief. 

You who have never held office have 
doubtless observed that the former office 
holders are, as a general rule, the most 
bitter of all others against the present 
plan of reconstruction. -As all men are 
more or less ambitious for power, this is 
not unnatural. They have had the 
benefits in the past, and as the fortunes 
of war have been against them, they 
must now stand aside for a time at 
least, and live as you have always lived 
— without office. And while they are 
excluded, such of you as may be se- 
lected from your own number, must 
come forward and till the positions ot 
honor and trust in their places. 

As society would still have existed, 
and prosperity and happiness might 
still have been hoped for, if all of us 
who are now disfranchised had died 
when these acts of Conf^ress were 
passed, we may still expect the country 
to exist, and the offices to be filled 
after we are disfranchised. 

Judging from the past, it is natural 
to conclude that if Congress had re- 
quired a further sacrifice of the 2)eople's 
property, without interfering with the 
rujhts of the leaders to hold ojjiee, as 
the terms of settlement, it would have 
been as "promptly and cheerfully" 
yielded as they yielded slavery, liut 
when Congress required the leaders to 
yield this right to settle the question, 
and save to the people the balance left 
them, how few have been willing to 
make this sacrifice for the public good. 



Those who have been accustomed to 
occupy the positions of honor and profit 
seem to think the country is ruined 
beyond, redemption, if they are de- 
prived of this right. Doubtless other 
men will rise up in the places of many 
of them, as honest and as capable as 
they were, and the country will still 
prosper after they are forgotten. 

It is much to be regretted that many 
of our former leaders seem to employ all 
their powers in widening the breach, 
and stirring up our prejudices against 
the people of the North, When the war 
raged this was natural. But when 
hostilities ceased it became unnatural. 
Enemies in war should in peace be 
friends, is the precept of high authority. 
Suppose the leaders of the North had 
all been as active in arousing the 
bitter prejudices of the masses against 
us, what would have been the result? 
Before this time our whole property 
would have been confiscated to pay the 
war debt, ».nd all who voluntarily aided 
in the rebellion would have been fc^ 
ever disfranchised. If we had been 
the conquerors, and the people of 
the North the conquered, do you not 
believe the same Southern leaders who 
now labor so faithfully to keep alive 
our passions and our prejudices 
against the people of the North, would 
have favored the dictation of as 
hard, nay, harder terms to them than 
they now prescribe to us? Mr. Uill, in 
his Savannah speech, above referred to, 
before the war began, laid down the 
terms upon which we were to allow 
them to come into the Union or Con- 
federacy : after we had "burned their 
cities and devastated their country." 
If they ''came humbly enough as hew- 
ers of wood and drawers of water they 
might come." These are the terms 
u|)on which he and others, as Radical 
Southern leaders, proposed to allow 
them to come back into the Union after 
we conquered them. And raanv of the 
same men, who then entertained this 
revengeful spirit, are now the men who 



22 



denounce the governing men of the 
North as perjured traitors for proposing 
milder terms to us ; and all our people 
as perjured traitors who accept milder 
terms. 

Again, the masses of the Northern 
people have shown none of this re- 
lentless spirit toward us since the war. 
Our cities were burned and our conntrj'" 
devastated by the war. This was 
followed by drought and a very short 
crop. Thousands of our people were 
on the very verge of starvation. AVe 
had not the means of relief among 
ourselves. We appealed to the hu- 
manity of the people of the North, and 
they responded with noble and gener- 
ous sympathy. Our agents who went 
among them to represent our destitu^ 
tion, distress and suffering, were not 
turned empty away. The people of 
the North lent a listening ear, and they 
opened their hearts, their houses, their 
granaries, and their purses, and contri- 
buted hundreds of thousands of dollars 
in value to the relief of our poor — to 
feed the hungry and clothe the naked, 
who, but a short time previous, were 
enemies in arms against them. Even 
the Congress — that "fragmentary con- 
clave of perjured traitors," as Mr. Hill 
calls them, appropriated a large sura to 
the relief of the suffering poor of the 
South as well those who had been 
rebels as those who were Union men 
In view of these considerations, I most 
respectfully submit that all these mis- 
chievous, malignant efforts of such 
leaders as Mr. Hill, and others actu- 
ated by like motives, to arouse passion 
and influence prejudice against the 
people who have acted in this spirit 
toward us since the war, is in bad 
taste, unjust, unreasonable, and un- 
grateful. It is true the people of the 
North claim to dictate the terms of 
peace, and it is equally true that if we 
had been the conquerors we should 
have maintained the same position. 
The question has been submitted to the 
arbitrament of the sword. The decision 



is against us in this high court of our 
own selection, and we are bound by 
the judgment and compelled to submit. 

Then, why all this fustian, and rant, 
and nonsense, after we are whipped and 
are at the feet of the conqueror, per- 
fectly powerless? Why whimper, and 
whine, and snarl continually about 
what we have lost? Why not yield to 
our fate, hard as it is, like men, and go 
to work, and try to build up again ? 
Why continue to irritate those who have 
absolute power over us, and provoke 
them to become more exactins' ? Why 
should leaders so obstinately resist 
their own disfranchisement, when their 
success in the defeat of the Convention 
will not, in the end, relieve a single one 
of them, but will terminate in the 
general disfranchisement of the people 
who are their deluded followers? 

Leaders now say they had rather 
remain under military government 
the requirements of 
will not be allowed 
it, the fortieth Con- 
finally adjourn till 
these States are all reconstructed 
upon some teruis, and readmitted 
to representation. The people of the 
North demand this, and it will be 
done. If we reconstruct upon the 
present terms, about nine tenths of 
the white men will remain voters. 
If we reject and vote down the Con- 
vention, when Congress again meets 
in December it will pass an act 
extending the dislranchisement to 
every man who votes against the 
Convention, whether white or black, 
and probably to all others who volun- 
tarily aided in the rebellion. 

But it may be asked, why disfran- 
chise a man because he votes against 
the Convention ? The reply is, Con- 
gress, representing the conqueror, has 
submitted its plan for reconstruction 
and restoration of the Union, and the 
vote of each man, white or black, will 
be looked to as a test of his loyalty 
and willingness to see the Union re- 



than submit to 
Congress. This 
us. Rely upon 
gress will not 



23 



stored and peace once more estab- 
lished. The tickets of all, black and 
white, will, no doubt, be numbered, 
and it will be an easy matter for the 
Government to see h<nv each voted. 
The question is not M'hother we will 
allow the freed men to vote. That is 
already esta1)lished beyond revocation. 
He is already rgpiistered, and the army 
stands nt his back to see that lie is not 
deprived of this right conferred by 
Congress. When they have once ex- 
ercised this right, who is so blind 
as not to see that we cannot take it 
from them without a war of races. 
Having once exercised it they will 
fight for it, or continue to exercise it ; 
and they will have the sympathy and 
support of a large majority of the 
people of the North. 

It is not wise to deceive ourselves on 
this point. Universal manhood suffrau;e 
is a fixed fact, however much we may 
deplore it. The whole question, then, 
is in a nutshell. It is not whether the 
freedmen shall vote, but it is how many 
of the white men shall vote? It may be 
said this will fasten negro government 
upon us, and we shall, therefore, vote 
down the Convention to avoid it. How 
does this help us ? If we vote for a 
Convention, about nine tenths of the 
white men of Georgia will still be 
voters. If we vote down the Conven- 
tion, Congress will extend the disfran- 
chisement till probably not exceeding 
one tenth will be voters. Which will 
be the worst government for us, that 
in which nine tenths of our own race 
retain the right to vote or that in 
which only one tenth have that right? 
Take Tennessee as an instance. Her 
government was set up before the war 
ended, and by her Constitution none but 
test-oath men, and a few other favorites 
of the powers that then ruled her, are 
allowed to vote. Of about 150,000 
white citizens, only a little over 20,000 
are V-Oters. How gladly would the 
white people of Tennessee acce[)t the 
terms tendered to us by the Military 



Bills, which would put the ballot box 
into the hands of nine tenths of the 
white men, when, at present, ahf>ut one 
seventh are voters. What .sen.sihle man 
desires to oxchan<re position with them ? 
And still Mr. Hill and other leaders 
advocate a tnad policy that must, if 
successful, place Georgia in a worse 
condition than Tennessee now occupies ; 
as our rejection of the lerins will c;iuse 
the distranchisemont of probably a 
larger proportion of our white peo[)le 
than the proportion now disfrani-hised 
in Tennessee. 

It was with a view of doing all in my 
power to save our people from this 
alternative that I took position in 
advance for the acceptance, in good 
faith, of the terms prescribed by Con- 
gress. I very well knew the advantage 
which an unscrupulous opponent would 
have by appeals to the passions and 
prejudices of our people who have just 
passed through the war, with but little 
time for reason to resume its control. 
1 was well aware of the ease with 
which the wounds could be reopened 
by inflammatory appeals and denun- 
ciations. The detraction and abuse 
which have been heaped upon me was 
not unexpected. But whatever may 
have been our errors in the past, I 
entertain no doubt that our best interest 
in the future requires the prompt ac- 
ceptance of the plan dictated by the 
conqueror. Having taken my posi- 
tion in fivor of the acceptance of the 
terms, after mature consideration — 
despising the vile slanderer whose 
delight is detraction and abuse, and 
defying the surging, resistless tide 
of passions and prejudices which 
designing men are attempting to lash 
into fury for selfish ends, I shall stand 
immovably by my position. And I 
warn the people to beware how thej^ 
subordinate their reason to their preju- 
dices, which, if persisted in, will bring 
utter ruin upon themselves and their 
children. If you vote down the Con^ 
vention, preferring military govern^ 



24 



ment, how long may it be before 
Congress will direct the military com- 
mander to assess a tax upon yon, in 
addition to your present burdens, to 
support this military government, which 
seems at present to command your 
admiration ? What guarantee have 
you that General Pop 3, who has shown 
himself a wise, humane ruler, possess- 
ing the qualities of the statesman as 
well as the General, will be continued 
as your commander ? He may die, or 
be called to some other field of labor, 
and his successor may be destitute of 
the high qualities of head and heart 
possessed by him. 

But, however this may be, mark it — 
be not deceived. If you vote down the 
Convention, in less than two years 
Georgia will be reconstructed with a 
representation in Congress ; the great 
mass of white men in Georgia, including 
all who vote against the Convention, 
will be disfranchised ; and there will be 
a general confiscation of property to 
pay the war debt and pension of the 
Union soldiers who were disabled in the 
war. Tell me not that this will be no 
worse than the present state of things. 
It will be infinitely worse than every 
candid man, controlled by reason and 
common sense, is obliged to admit. 

It is no escape to say, as Mr. Hill 
antl others have said, that Congress 
has no power to pass a confiscation act 
after the war is over, or that confisca- 
tion is a war measure only. There is 
an act now on the statute book, passed 
in July, 1862, while the war was 
raging, that confiscated almost the 
entire property of Georgia. This act 
has never l)ccn rei)ealcd. Mr. Stevens 



arraigns the President for having failed 
to execute it. Continue to show a 
rebellious spirit, and it is only neces- 
sary for Congress to pass a resolution, 
or act, directing that the property 
already confiscated be seized, and 
instead of its appropriation by the 
President to the use of the army, as 
directed by the origin^il act, that it be 
applied in payment of the war debt, 
and to pension wounded soldiers, and 
the work is done. 

If, it is said, as has been charged, 
that ray course is influenced by fear of 
the confiscation of my property, I 
reply, as will every honest man who 
reads this, that I have no wish to lose 
my property. But if confiscation mutsf 
come I can bear it as well as otlicis 
can. I have a good profession by 
which I can make an ample support. 
And this is more than can be said by 
thousands of Georgians. The home of 
a farmer, if it is his ov/n, is as much to 
him as what I have is to me, and I can 
live us comfortably without mine as he 
can without his. My warning, then, is 
against a common calamity, iti which I 
should only be a common sufferer with 
hundreds of thousands of others. 

In conclusion, I beg the leader to 
dismiss passion and prejudice, malig- 
nity and hate, and summon his reason 
to his support, and think- calmly of 
what I have said, without reference to 
his like or dislike of me persoiuilly, and 
judge for himself, in view of our con- 
dition as a conquered people, and in the 
light of all the circumstances by which 
he is surrounded, what is best for him 
to do to promote his own interest and 
the public welfare. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. FOSTER BLODGETT, 



BEFORE THE 



UNION CLUB OF AUGUSTA, GA., 



On Monday eyening, Aug. 12, 1867. 



SPEECH OF HON. FOSTER BLODGETT 



. BEFORE THE 



UNION CLUB OF ^uausT^,a A^. 

On Moiiclay evening, Aug, 12, 1867. 



Felt-ow-Citizens: In conformity to 
your desire, I offer j^on a few remarlcs 
in relation to tlie situation of our affairs, 
and my opinion concerning- the best and 
speediest method of extrication from 
the difticulties which seem to beset the 
way to a complete and final pacitication 
of the country. I hope that in the exe- 
cution of your plans of improvement 
you will, ere long, have the opportunity 
of hearing those who are better able to 
gratif}'^ your expectations than I am; but 
let me assure you, in all candor, that no 
one will appear b(;fore you more solicit- 
ous than I am for the rapid restoration 
of our State to the condition of peace, 
and that prosperity by which she was 
formerly distinguished. 

It is impossible that such a series of 
events as marked the histoiy of this 
country during the past six years could 
occur without leaving behind the traces 
of violence and discontent. From such 
a tremendous upheaving of all the po- 
litical and social elements, a nation must 
have ycAYS to recover. There must be 
time for prosperity to repair the ravages 
of war, and for the sullen and dissatis- 
fied to comprehend the futility of their 
opposition and a necessity for a change 
in their sentiments. 

J take it as true that a majority of the 
peoi)le of the State of Georgia are sutli- 
ciently intelligent to listen to the voice 
of leason, if vmswayed by the clamors 
of those in whom they have confided, 
and who have a selfish interest in con- 
cealing the truth. 1 do sincerely hope 
that tiie day is approaching when the 
people will learn to depend upon and 
think for themselves j when they will 



no longer submit to be led by unpatriotic 
and designing ambition, but will awake 
to the importance of political knowl- 
edge, and determine that the course to 
be taken shall be the result of their own 
mature deliberations. The experience 
of the past has, certainlj^ been a sulti- 
cient teacher, as it has demonstrated in 
language that cannot be misunderstood, 
that a lew men, inspired by the spirit of 
evil, can lead a trusting nation to the 
very verge of ruin. But while the peril 
of the country has been great, and the 
nations of the earth stood aghast at the 
magnitude of the intestine convidsion, 
one fact stands out in grand relief, and 
that is that the pillars of the Republic 
are unshaken, and that in our day and 
generation and for generations to come 
after us, there need be no apprehension 
of a repetition of the trial from which 
we have emerged. Men among our 
ccnintrymen may disagree as to the best 
and most proper method of administer- 
ing the government ; there will be, as 
there has been, diversity of opinion as 
to the claims of prominent pubhc ser- 
vants; the contest for the spoils of ofllce 
and the honors of power will again 
occur; but the great Republic of the 
world will stand firm as the everlasting- 
rocks that stay the rush of ocean's 
waves. 

Differing if we must^ let us differ as 
becomes men of rellection and reason, 
and not employ our energies and time 
which we owe to our country, in fruit- 
less displays ()f bad temper and trifling 
discussions on generalities and abstrac- 
tions. It is no time now for us to re- 
proach each other. Great events have 



27 



occurred and are occurring around us. 
which demand our earnest attention, 
Time occupied in tlic retrospective con- 
sideration of the causes that led to the 
rebellion is wasted. We know the cause ; 
we know that all the suffering, the de- 
struction, the so]"row which the country 
has undergone was brought on by the 
mad and reckless ambition of designing 
politicians who saw that there was dan- 
ger of losing power: who were willing 
to risk the magnificent prospect of the 
future for a few lleeting days of personal 
advantage; who liad "rather rule in hell 
than serve in heaven." To the men of 
this class who still exist, it is useless to 
speak. Tliey see the handwriting on 
the wall. They realize the momentous 
fact that they have j^assed off of the 
stage of action — that tlie people whom 
they influenced for evil and guided to 
disaster can dispense with their services 
— and soured by disappointment, and 
chagrined by failure, they beat the empty 
air in despairing gestures,and waste their 
breath in re[)ining exclamations, and 
seek to render others as unhapi)y as 
themselves. A new day has dawned. 
We have now to gra])ple with the facts. 
The theories of the past are exploded. 
The country has passed through a tre- 
mendous cliange, and he who cannot 
perceive the necessities of the situation, 
and bring his mind to acfiuiesccnce in 
what no chiclaration or act of his can 
avoid, is doubly blinded, and a lit com- 
panion ol those who are led by the 
"bhnd leaders of the blind." 

AVhen the war closed in defeat to the 
rebellion, the prospect for a speedy and 
satisfactory settlement of all our ditH- 
culties seemed excellent. The South 
then was in a frame of mind which 
promised tliat in a short time the promi- 
nent asperities would be removed, and 
the wliole country be restored to a com- 
parative peace, I know a very large 
number of the pcoi)le of Georgia were 
then disposed to submit with the best 
possible grace, and foremost among that 
number were those who had fought 
with a courage resembling desperation. 
A considerable portion had been Union 
men, who had never despaired of the 
country, even in tlie time ot its sorest 
need, and who welcomed a return to the 



shelter of the t)ld flag. At that period 
the people came nearer the comprehen- 
sion of tlieir true condition than they 
have done since. They then saw them- 
selves as they actually were — conciuered, 
and subject to the will of the conciueror 
— that conqueror who regarded their 
rebellion as a gigantic effort to overturn 
rejjublican government, and worthy ol' 
the severest punishment. They were 
then ready to accept such terms as miglit 
be tendered, and claimed notliing as 
matter of right. They accei)ted the fact 
that slavery was dead, and they i^assed 
their acts of emancipation, surrendering 
in one breath the whole principle in- 
vt)lved in the struggle. But time passed 
on; the prisons remained untenanted 
except by violators of civil law- no 
trials for treason occurred ; the people 
were allowed to pursue, with but slight 
and occasional interruptions, any path 
to prosperity tlieir interests miglit dic;- 
tate. But one cloud remained, and it is 
that cloud, originally no larger than a 
man's hand, which has overshadowed 
and darkened the entire South. That 
cloud was the probable disfranchisement 
of the leaders of the rebellion. There 
is no doubt in my mind that but for the 
insertion of that clause the Constitu- 
tional Amendment would have been 
accepted by the State of Georgia, and 
jirobably by every other Southern State. 
These leaders, many of them politicians 
of half a century, who had fattened 
upon the spoils of oflice and revelled in 
the enjoyment of unlimited power, de- 
termined to uj'ge the peojile to a refusal 
of any terms by which they themselves 
might be deprived of the right to hold 
office. Their own aggrandizement was 
the paramount consideration. They 
would not be choked off so long as there 
remained the remotest possibility of pre- 
venting the calamity. And it is just 
this feeling which prompts them to the 
encouragement of the continuance of 
the present disorganized state of affairs. 
The Constitutional Amendment was 
rejected mainly at their instigation. The 
right of the peoi)le of the State to regu- 
late grave questions in their own wa\', 
Avas therefore lost, and if their advice 
is taken, will not be regained. And now 
these same men come again for\\'ard antl 



28 



clamor for the rejection of all other [ 
propositions which may be made by the 
power which has the country at its 
merc3^ and advocate a resistance which 
can oi)ly end in the total and irretrieva- 
ble ruin of the entire South. Verily, 
"whom the Gods wish to destroy they 
first make mad." 

The Congress of the United States, 
the only authority which has the power 
to enforce its decrees, has solemnly de- 
clared that the reconstruction of the 
Southern States shall be accomplished 
in a certain way. It is of no service to 
us to argue the constitutional right of 
Congress to do such a thing — it is the 
judge of its own motives and actions, 
and is not amenable to any other branch 
of the government. It is sufficient for 
us to know that it has the power to 
compel our obedience. The question 
then for us is, not Avhat we would do if 
a choice were left us, but in what way 
can we best comply with the demand V 
How settle the whole matter in the 
speediest method ? The countiy is suf- 
fering by the delays, men's minds are 
unsettled and drifting into a sea of dread 
and despair, the industrial energies of 
the people are becoming paralyzed, and 
chaos threatens. It may be that Con- 
gress in the emergency-has gone bej^ond 
the written Constitution of the past, and 
acted upon the maxim that "the safety 
of the people is the supreme law." In 
whatever light we view the subject, avc 
must, if we are men of patriotic purpose 
and intelligent discernment, come to the 
conclusion that we are inciting the 
people to a fearful risk if we fail or 
refuse to counsel acceptance of the terms 
proposed. 

The first actual step in the progress of 
reconstruction is registration, "that is 
already progressing to perfection, and is 
now beyond debate — the next step is 
holding a Convention. Congress has 
specified the method in which delegates 
to such a Convention shall be chosen, 
and who shall be entitled to vote. A 
very large proportion of our population 
has been enfranchised and will vote. 
From the fact that this class has never 
before exercised the franchise, and that 
a majority of It has been reared in igno- 
rance, it is frequently argued that great 



evil will result. I do not indulge in such 
fears. I am willing to give the colored 
voters of Geoi'gia a fair trial, believing 
that time and education will shortly 
enable them to properly exercise this 
great privilege. And here comes in one 
of the highest duties we owe to our 
country. These people of color, among 
whom we have been reareil, and who 
are attached to us by all the ties of sym- 
pathy, association, and interest, are fully 
entitled to our deepest consideration, 
and we should gladly take every proper 
opportunity of instructing them as to 
the true character of their rights, and 
let them plainly see by our conduct 
toward them that we recognize their 
political status, and are anxious to assist 
them in the faithful discharge of their 
new duties. The supreme law has given 
them an equal right to the suffrage with 
us — is it not unfair to assume in advance 
that they will abuse that right ? Has 
the suffrage never been abused by white 
men ? Let us do the duty we owe to 
them, persistently and fearlessly, and 
leave the consequences to God*, who 
alone rules over the destinies of indi- 
viduals and nations. 

The Union Republican Party of Geor- 
gia accepts the Congressional scheme of 
restoration, and Avill exert its utmost 
energies to secure such a convention of 
the people of the State as will bring 
about representation in the halls of Con- 
gress. There, until then, the voice of 
Georgia is mute — she has not even the 
privileges of a Territory. Her words 
are wind — she is excluded from the only 
place where it is of the first importance 
to her interests that she should be heard. 
Powerful opposition to a Convention is 
manifested in various quarters at the 
present time, but to what can such op- 
position amount? As sure as the sun 
Avill rise to-morrow a Convention will 
be held in Georgia. Suppose it were 
possible to vote it down at the coming 
election, would that defeat the plan? 
B}'' no means; it would only restrict the 
number of voters. Is it not infinitely 
better, then, for all the people who can 
vote to unite everywhere upon the best 
men who are acceptable to the Govern- 
ment, and by facilitating the objects of 
the Reconstructionists, restore the State 



as 



to her proper federal relations? I think 
so, and I think, also, that the majority 
of our people will agree with me. 

Those gentlemen who are so clamor- 
ous for resistance do not very distinctly 
exnlain in what that resistance is to con- 
sism Some of the oi^position to us ad- 
vocate nothing, "'We are against it," is 
their whole argument. I resi)ect a manVs 
opinion which differs from my own 
when he is able to suggest a policy 
which seems to have the appearance of 
reason in it. But 1 cannot heed the 
advice of men who aie against every- 
thing and in favor of nothing. We 
w ant practical men now-nien avIio will 
come up to the exigency, and who will 
do theliest they can for tlie (country under 
the circumstances. Now there is hut 
one course remaining ff)r us, if we would 
not prove faithless to our highest inter- 
esta. That course is to throw no obstacle 
in the path of Congressional restoration. 
As for armed resistance to the jjowers 
that rule over us, the idea is absurd. 
Political differences hereafter, as before 
the "war, will be settled by tlu; ])anot, a 
peaceful weapon more potent than all 
the swords of all the discontented from 
the centie to the circumference of our 
Union ! 

" It is a weapon firmer set, 
And better than the bayonet; 
A weapon that comes down as still 

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
But executes a freeman's will 

As lightning doth the will of God 1" 

One grand result of this convulsion 
will be that hereafter Labor will hold its 
proper station. It cannot be doubted 
that slavery tended to degrade labor in 
tlie South. This was a natural and 
inevitable result of the system. The 
owners of slaves were not responsible 
for it, and it is not charged to them ; but 
the man who toiled for his support and 
that of his family, was not held in that 
estimation which his abilities might 
entitle him, under different circumslan- 
ces, to claim and receive. With the 
abolition of slavery passed aw^ay all 
semblance of reason for such a pieju- 
dice, and now the honest, hard-working 
citizen will tind the opportunity to ele- 
vate liimself to all the dignity he 
reasonably merits. He will enter a new 
tield, where he can compete for any of 



the prizes the world has for honorable 
conduct, and will no more be dragged 
downward by the humiliating reflection 
that he occupies an inferior position. 

And it is this Union Kcpublican Parly 
which has made this magniticent d«'cla- 
ration in behalf of the toihng nnllions 
hitherto d(;privedof their pr(^|>er rewju'd. 
It is this part V here in Georgia w hich 
has proclaimed the dignity of labor — 
which has recognized the grand prin- 
ciple that labor antl capital are et|ual — 
and that, any suixMii^iity claimed by one 
over the oliier is an arrogant assumption. 
It is this party, whit-h in our uwn State 
is composed maiidy of men wht) are 
striving to redeem the country from the 
horrors of discoril, and to soften the 
asperities gcuierated by strife, that comes 
out boldly and bioadly and enunciates 
the doctrine of cipial riglits. Is there 
anytliing wrong here — anything to 
which men not cairied awa}' by the 
spirit of factious opi)osilion cannot 
subscribeV 

Another object to which the Recon- 
structionists of Georgia have deehired 
their adherence, is the education of the 
masses. Under a system of republican 
gov(!rnment men should do theii- own 
thinking. To enablt! the col(jred race to 
become bctl(,'r citizens it is indispensable 
that they should have the advantages 
nothing but a common school system 
can confer upon them. They will be 
called upon to bear their part of the 
burden — they will be required to con- 
tribute to the common weal by the pay- 
ment of taxes. Hence it follows that 
they will be entitled to a participation 
in the benefits of education ; such edu- 
c^ation as will qualify them for a jiist 
comprehension of their duties as mem- 
bers of the body politic. The policy of 
such a course is too evident to need 
elaboration. It is for the interest of 
both the Avhite and colored races that 
they should live in harmou}^ — that they 
should fully undc^rstand the great fact 
that there is not the slightest reason for 
antagonism between them — that all men 
of all colors are dwelling under one flag 
and are ecjual before the law. I kntjw 
how hard it is for men who have been 
educated in a certain May to give up 
their most cherished prejudices in a 



30 



moment. I know it is liard for those 
Avlio have lost the comi)eteiice of the 
future to succumb to events, however 
inevitable those events may be. But I 
am glad to see that our people generally, 
of the white race, are acknowledging 
the justice of the claim of the new- 
born citizen to greater knowledge, and 
in many cases are cheerfully coming 
forward and inaugurating measures for 
the benefit of his children and himself. 
I trust the day will soon come Avhen 
school houses ^vill flourish in all sections 
of Georgia- when education shall be as 
free to aW-tis the bubbling spring at the 
road side. In other countries, and in 
other sections of our own Union, tlie 
most lavish expenditures are made in 
this cause, and the utmost care is taken 
to instil in the minds of youth the prin- 
ciples which are the foundation of free 
government. There is no reason why 
this subject should not demand a like 
attention from us. The money thus 
spent pr(jduces a richer and more grati- 
fying return than can l)e realized in any 
other manner. It elevates and ennobles 
tlie people; it reduces the record of 
crime; it builds up and perpetuates a 
monument to virtue and intelligence 
that time can never destroy. It is un- 
fortunate that hitherto we "have been so 
remiss in a well-defined duly, but Ave 
should now set forward with a determi- 
nation that such reproach shall no longer 
cHng to us. 

It hasljeen, and it is now, persistently 
urg(;d by maii}^ of the opponents of a 
Convention, that it is utterly useless to 
elect sucli a bod}', as it would probably 
be composi'd of renegades and mercena- 
ries, who, in the execution of their 
scUlsh i)urposes, would impose more 
insufferable burdens upon the peojile 
than those they now sustain under the 
ruk; of the military power. Vituperation 
is exhausted in the effort to cast odium 
iil)on all who are anxiously working for 
the inauguration of permanent legal 
State govermnent, under the Acts "of 
Congress. The government which we 
now ha^X' is merely provisional, and 
though it undoubtedly is legal while it 
is allowed to exist, it is sub]e(;t at any 
time to be abolished, modified, con- 
trolled, or superseded. There is no se- 



curity about it - it is tolerated, and tliat 
is all. It is absolutely essential to the 
safety of the peoi)le, sooner or later, 
that civil government should be rein- 
stated. An immense majority of the 
l)eople have a voice in the choiccjof 
delegates to the proposed Conventmn, 
for but comparatively a small portion of 
them are disfranchised, even under the 
most stringent construction of the Acts 
of Congress. This Ijeing the fact, it is 
a violent assumption that unworthy and 
unpatriotic men will be selected. It is 
an insidt to the peoi)le to so declare, and 
I utter the ]^rophecy that such declara- 
tion Avill not be sustained by the fact. I 
l)elieve that the good men of all classes, 
impressed with the momentous conse- 
quences depending upon their action, 
Avill see to it that the trust is confided to 
able hands— hands which, while they 
are determined to uplKjld the Federal 
Government and its authorized officials, 
are yet comiK'tent to the task of con- 
structing an edifice that, will bring no 
dishonor U[)on them hereafter when the 
impartial historian comes to survey their 
work. The military rule, though it is 
of the most lenient character — much ■< 
more so than under the same circum- 
stances Avould in any other country 
exist — is not intended to contimie any 
longer than is necessary to protect the 
people in the re-establishment of order 
and the inauguration of civil law. In 
the preamble of the ]nilitary bill it is 
expressly declared that '' no legal State 
government or ade(iuate protection for 
life or pri)perty now exists in the rebel 
States," and that ''it is necessary that 
peace and good order should be enforced 
in said States until legal and republican 
State governments can be legally estab- 
lished." The design is evident that the 
military government is to be as 
short of duration as the nature of 
the . case demands — that as soon as 
j)ossible the State is to be re- 
stored to her former position. Under 
the supplementary bills the machinery of 
registration has been put in operation; 
that work is now nearly completed, and 
it is ])robable that within a few months 
the election will take place. The change, 
then, is about to begin, and it behooves 
all who aspire to the character of good 



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31 



citizens to jiid in the speedy, peaceful, 
and final settlement of our troubles, and 
the restoration of the friendly relations 
of all portions of the Union, by an 
acquiescence in, and supi)ort of, the 
measures prescribed. 

There is yet another phase in opposi- 
tion. There is a class, and no insiii;ni1i- 
cant one in numbers, either, who loudl}' 
insist that the professions of the Ilej)ul')- 
lican Party are all false; that the con- 
firmed intention of the Northern pcoi)le 
is to humiliate and degrade the South ; 
that no reliance whatever is to be placed 
in the language or honor of Congress; 
that all the pledges hitherto made by 
Congress, and the .North generally, luive 
been violated, and that, therefore, it 
would be base and unmanly in the 
Southern i)eople to assent to any further 
demand. If the premises of these 
noisy agitators were true, there could 
be nothing done toward ameliorating 
the situation, and consent or refusal on 
our part would alike amount to nothing. 
But, than assertions like these to which 
I have alluded, nothing could be falsc^r. 
As 1 have said, and as you all know, tlie 
Constitutional Amendment \\^'ls oifcrod 
to the South and was refused. The 
Sherman and supplementary bills are 
now proposed, antl it is distinctl}' under- 
stood by Congress, and by the intelli- 
gent people of the North, that if the 
South accept them in the proper sjMrit, 
and acts in accordance with their i)r()- 
visions, the entire questions in disi)ute 
are settled, and linally. Besides, what 
is the North to gain b}' a contimied 
agitation ? Her interests are also suffer- 
ing from the unsettled political slate of 
the countiy ; her mercantile, manufac- 
turing and industrial population arv 
crippled in their I'esources and strug- 
gling against the tide of adversity which 
is setting in against them. Th(y are a 
keen and calculating people, and ai-«! not 
given wantonly and recklessly' to injuri! 
their own material prosperity in the 
etfort to destroy that of their neighbors 
and countiy m(!n. 1 liave never thought 
that tlie great majority of them, in their 
determination to have the grave matters 
nnder discussion disposed of in their 
own way, wei'e solely actuated b}- spite 
and malice toward the South. I give 



them greater credit for devotion to prin- 
ciple, for I do believe that they con- 
scientiously look upon the rebellion as a 
heinous (;rime against the (Tovernment 
of the United States, which rebellion, 
if successful, would have accomplished 
the overthrow of free institutions upon 
this continent, and disturbed the ]:>eace 
and retarded the civilization of the 
world. Let us do justice before we 
cliiim justice at the hands of others. 
They regard the factious refusal to com- 
ply witli what they consider necessary 
requisitions for future security, as but a 
continuation of the spirit of the rebel- 
lion, the i)hysical force of which is so 
completely, hopelessly, irrecoverably 
C]ushed. They, the conquerors, claim 
tlie right to dictate terms to the con- 
(luered. They have the power to enforce 
compliance with their behests. What is 
left for us but to submit V 

In the days that are gone, they, as a 
people, never manifested any ill feeling 
toward the South. Our interest was 
their interest— each to a very great e.vtent 
was dependent upon the other. The 
products of our lields went into tlieir 
looms— the handiwork of "Yankee" 
ingenuity and skill was scattered broad- 
cast oxer our section. There was no 
possible geographical divisi(m that could 
separate us— Piovidence had designed 
the whole country for the occupation of 
(nie brotherhood. Their fathers and our 
fathers claimed the same origin; they 
struck hands together in fellowship over 
the same altars; they toiled side by sid(; 
for the impro\'um(!nt of humanitv; tliey 
stood shoulder to shoulder together in 
thesti-iiggl<i for American Independence, 
while the blood of their uncovered feet 
mingled in tin; snow; they formed a 
system of government which was the 
beacon-light, of the world; they created 
an asylum for all the oppressed of the 
human race. United by all the ties of 
intcivst, security, ancestry, and liberty, 
there will Ir; before then- descendants a 
destiny beyond the jKnver of delineation. 
It is our laisiness to aid in its realiza- 
tion. 

Let the past go. There is much to be 
forgotten— there are many wounds to 
be healed. Further dissension can but 
embitter the hearts of the people, now 



% 



so o'roatly in need of peace. Let us 
strive to allay the animosities engen- 
dered by war, and dispel the gloom that 
hovers above us. We are to live in the 
future as one ]ieople, under one govern- 
ment. Let us endeavor to make that 
government a just one, imposing its 
burdens impartially and distributing its 
blessings equally. Let us unite in the 
Efreat work of reconstruction and res- 



toration, with the resolution to make 
sacnfices, if sacrifices are necessary for 
our country. And on the altar of that 
country let our first sacrifice be our 
prejudices. 

" Land of the forest and the rock 

Of dark blue lake and mighty river, 
Of mountains reared on high to mock 
The storm's career and lightning's slock. 

My ""'" '»»-'»i" lonrl fnv ovpri" _ 

LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



002 731 266 4 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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